NidhiThakur ~निधि ठाकुर (www.nidhithakur.com)

Monday, January 15, 2024

Same Old Me: Newly Minted Author!

All the stars aligned, and here we are:

Available Globally on Amazon:

https://a.co/d/31OwNhq

https://amzn.eu/d/cXMBT1D

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

When It Snows on The East Coast of America

There is reason to feel cold

and trapped at home There is added work of

shoveling snow

and layering the children when

they peskily insist on making

snowman

And then they create a named creature on the front lawn

it has a nose, often carrot like,

and two eyes, made of anything the kids could find in pairs.

(Once they put two pencils -pointed searing eyes,

then another time, a pair of tennis balls- neon green bedazzled eyes)

The eyes need to look similar.

who knows what all will those two similar eyes see

kids sledding?

snow blowers spraying snow?

yellow school bus stopping to pick up children?

snowmen don't have ears

will they ever hear of Russian soldiers raping Ukrainian women?

or of little children in Yemen dying of hunger?

or of lovers being hacked by lovers into sizes just big enough to fit into refrigerators?

or of missiles lighting up the night sky over IsraelPalestine? One sky, lit up, on fire?

or of the arctic snow melting so fast that the snowman

may drown?

When it snows on the east coast of america

snowmen

and snowwomen

and snowchildren

and snowothers

everywhere

melt.

#SNOW

#israel #palestine #india #ukraine #russia #yemen

#snowmen

Monday, March 6, 2023

Hanif Kureishi Becomes The Inspiration From A Hospital Bed

My day would have been off to a great, I daresay stellar, start. That great start would have been a great start to a week , since today is Monday. Perhaps then my whole week would have set a tone for the remainder of the month of March and subsequently, of the remainder of the year. Who knows how that might have set my remainder of the life on an orbit of great accomplishments-one marked by name, fame, goodwill, health, wealth, positivity, fun, laughter, hugs, embraces and blessings. All of this was mine to grab in that orbit, and that orbit was mine to get onto, except that the day's start was brought to the most unpredicted and technical glitch!

I did not see the chair parked under my multi-height table, which was at my standing height when I came to it, bathed and fresh with my cup of coffee in hand. I clicked on the remote to bring it down to my sitting position. The shortening of the desk's legs stared with the smooth movement at usual, thus leaving zero room for me to suspect anything lurking in the darkness of the space under the table. And then it happened. Mid-way through the journey down to my sitting height, the table began to bulge up in the center, as it met the black chair on its way. Then the desk began to rise on one side. The lop-sidedness would have cost me my desktop, as it began to almost slide. The whole thing happened way too fast. I managed to click the stop on the remote, and discovered the chair. After much moving stuff off my desk, and then adjusting the legs of the table, I have managed to get the table to a decent sitting height. However, I notice that a wire has snapped, and my table's legs will not be able to be lengthened again.

My table's phoenix will not rise again (for the foreseeable future-given that I am extremely bad with making phone calls to companies to seek spare part and then even worst at actually doing any repairs.)

I am furious, at having lost the ability to show-off (to my children) the one technical and functional object I assembled, and that they enjoyed playing with. They liked the table going up and down. I guess, now no more for a while.

I could continue to be really upset and then go down a rabbit-hole of sulking. However, I recall that just yesterday I had written to Hanif Kureishi on one of his hospital dispatches (https://hanifkureishi.substack.com/). The noted British Playwright had a bad fall late last year while in Italy and has been on a hospital bed since. He is unable to write himself, and thus dictates his thoughts for a blog he started from there. He confessed to feeling despondent and sad being in pain, and not being able to have his friends visit him in Italy. He wants to hear his people speak to him in his language. Foreign words do not comfort him now. And I, like many others who read his chronicles, asked him to be strong.

Kureishi's is a real plight. His fall was real, and so is his hopelessness. His is a suffering that demands my prayer, since I now know about it. My table's wire snapping is just that. A wire that snapped and can be fixed-I think. The table's situation is an obstacle, but not an insurmountable one, I know. Sending him strength again, and sitting down to write (as opposed to standing) is the right thing to do. The exact time to reach that orbit might be gone, but who knows what new orbit a writer might pen down!